1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image input/output system having an image input/output apparatus and an information terminal apparatus as well as to an image input/output control apparatus that is used in such an image input/output system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Information terminal apparatuses including notebook-sized personal computers and PDAs (personal digital assistants) enable editing and storage of text data, image data, etc. as well as transmission and reception of data to and from another apparatus. Further, in general, they are relatively light and hence can be carried easily. In general, such information terminal apparatuses have none of a reading function of reading an image on a document, a printing function of printing an image on a sheet, and a transmission function of transmitting an image by fax. Therefore, to perform any of image input and output operations including image reading, printing, and fax transmission, an information terminal apparatus is connected to an image input/output apparatus and the image input/output apparatus performs image input or output while data exchange is performed between the two apparatuses.
For example, to print text data or image data that is stored in the information terminal apparatus, the information terminal apparatus and the image input/output apparatus (in this case, a printer) operate as follows. The information terminal apparatus converts stored data into PDL data using a printer driver corresponding to the connected image input/output apparatus, accepts a user's input of control data relating to various conditions of printing (e.g., the number of prints, monochrome or color, and the printing density), and transmits the PDL data and the control data to the image input/output apparatus. Receiving the PDL data and the control data, the image input/output apparatus performs image printing based on those data.
However, the above conventional image input/output systems having an information terminal apparatus and an image input/output apparatus have the following problems. Whereas, in general, information terminal apparatuses can be carried easily, image input/output apparatuses are stationary and are in many cases connected to other apparatuses (e.g., a server apparatus) via a LAN. In such a case, the user of an information terminal apparatus who wants to perform information input or output needs to set addresses of the respective apparatuses with understanding of the LAN environment in connecting the information terminal apparatus to the image input/output apparatus via the LAN. As such, the connection work is difficult to the user and the systems are poor in convenience. Further, an illegal operation may be performed in such connection work and illegal access may be made to another apparatus on the LAN after a connection is established. It can be said that the above systems have security-related problems.